Bodil Petersson

Experimental cultural heritage : combining art, archaeology and history in a landscape setting Bodil Petersson

Experimental Cultural Heritage is a new approach to working with heritage in the landscape, without hierarchies, together with different interpreters in the surrounding community and with other entrances to the collective memories than the institutionalised. The aim is to engage artists, archaeologists and heritage workers to inspire each other and the community, to enrich and renew perspectives on local heritage. Museums and other cultural heritage institutions might play a rather different role in people's lives and their forming of identities and history through this experimental approach. If cultural heritage museums and institutions work more as places for expression, experimentation and exhibition than as mere hosting institutions for traditional collection and display, we can serve the public in a more useful way. Through the combination of artistic and archaeological or historical experimentation with cultural heritage in the landscape, we might be able to safeguard a living heritage.